Junk food= Strength?

[Dredlock Rasta]

Have anyone you guys experienced the power of junk food? This past friday I worked out shoulders and biceps. On monday I worked out legs and was much stronger than my last leg workout session a week ago. However, on the two days between the shoulder/biceps workout I did nothing but eat junk food and a lot of it. I ate alot of hamburgers, hot dogs, beef fajita tacos, ice cream. Basically I ate a lot of high calorie, high fat food for those two days instead of eating my typical diet foods, which also contain a lot of calories but healthy calories. It was amazing what happened after those two days of nothing but junk food. Have any of you all experience this new power that comes from eating junk food and should I stick to eating this way since my main goal is to put on muscle and strength. Should I do a junk food bulk? Its seems that I get stronger on junk food than healthy food.

[chris_mason]

There are 3 possible reasons:

1) You don't eat enough healthy food and the increased calories from the junk food allow you to feed your body the calories it needs for growth.

2) The sodium content in the junk food.  Some people think that sodium can have an anabolic effect.  Your sodium ingestion may be a bit low when consuming "healthy" foods (this is the least likely reason of the 3).

3) You don't normally consume enough protein and the burgers and hot dogs help to provide the protein your body is craving.

[Arnold jr]

There are 3 possible reasons:

1) You don't eat enough healthy food and the increased calories from the junk food allow you to feed your body the calories it needs for growth.

2) The sodium content in the junk food.  Some people think that sodium can have an anabolic effect.  Your sodium ingestion may be a bit low when consuming "healthy" foods (this is the least likely reason of the 3).

3) You don't normally consume enough protein and the burgers and hot dogs help to provide the protein your body is craving.

I'll say it' most likely #1

[Brutal_1]

Agree with Chris...and Arnie 

 

[davie]

I did that before a chest workout once. I had been stuck on weights in pretty much all chest exercises, u know..getting 5 reps on last set wen im shooting for 3 sest of 8.

Well on this particualr day i was ruching about and ended up having a pizza about 45 mins before i went to gym (im usually healthy eater and only have pizza on sat night), well i absolutely smoked all weights i wanted for chest, i madde target sets/reps in every exercise. Week after i thougth id keep weight the same but eat baked potato with tuna before workout. Once again i struggled with the weight.?

davie

[Aido]

I'm willing to bet its number one........eat more kids.......eat clean and eat lots. 

[Sculpter]

This post has me curious.Is it the junk food or is it because of the fats you took in?I went through a similar experience but unlike yourself my diet was clean at the time.My weights at the time had gone up because I had started to supplement w/omega fats.Least that was what I attributed it to!Another thing is at the time after I started the omegas I noticed I started to get leaner  also!

[PUERTOROCKS]

Its also the glocuse in your blood

[WhiteHulk4]

If you typically eat very clean and low-fat/low-cal, then the sudden boost of high-fat/high-calorie probably sparked a whole plethora of anabolic hormones, which in turn fueled your killer workouts.

[Mr Anabolic]

1) You don't eat enough healthy food and the increased calories from the junk food allow you to feed your body the calories it needs for growth.

2) The sodium content in the junk food.  Some people think that sodium can have an anabolic effect.  Your sodium ingestion may be a bit low when consuming "healthy" foods (this is the least likely reason of the 3).

I have experienced this myself.  I definitely agree with Chris on these 2.

I have also noticed that lots of carbs and fat eaten before a workout can have this effect.  Sometimes eating too many carbs (of the same food) can make me strong as an ox, sometimes it makes me sleepy... weird 

I would not use this as an excuse to eat McDonald's before every workout however.

[Bear03]

I have also noticed that lots of carbs and fat eaten before a workout can have this effect.  Sometimes eating too many carbs (of the same food) can make me strong as an ox, sometimes it makes me sleepy... weird 

Sometimes (and by sometimes i mean it's pretty much inevitable) carbs and fat before a workout make me throw up during.  I have to have about a 25/35 protein/carb drink, and that's it.

[trulytoned]

This is an interesting topic, ive thought about it a bit and i think it might be attitude as well. Your so used to eating chicken,tuna etc that it gets extremely boring. Is it possible that the junk food sort of raised your energy level and your attitude so much that you lifted harder. I know that if im in a shitty mood i dont lift nearly as much as when im in a good mood. Just a thought...

[250Ben250]

This post has me curious.Is it the junk food or is it because of the fats you took in?I went through a similar experience but unlike yourself my diet was clean at the time.My weights at the time had gone up because I had started to supplement w/omega fats.Least that was what I attributed it to!Another thing is at the time after I started the omegas I noticed I started to get leaner  also!

i agree, the sole reason I have incresed strength and have dropped 8-10lbs of fat is because of my Omega 3 intake since May of this year. Literally nothing else in my diet or workout has changed other than the typical rotation of a different workout schedule every 5-6 weeks or so.

There's some decent reasoning behind doing a junk food bulk diet, but I think taking everything into consideration you'd be happier if you kept it 80-90% clean and increased your healthy fats significantly. Load up on the fish oils and almonds and you'll see a difference, less soreness too so you're able to push the weight even more.

[Atomicpc]

Have you ever heard of the energy bar "Hooah!" that the Army makes? It's supposed to have more fat than other bars which make a slow release energy method instead of a sugar high then down. Maybe the high fat content helped you.

DISCLAIMER: I know almost nothing about nutrition.

[weedoutheweak]

I'd say calories and sodium as well.